Conventionally, among games played by more than one players, there have been ones that are divided into a plurality of stages, and whose game content progresses when the players conquer each stage by reaching the same goal. Particularly, such a game is often arranged such that the players do their play alternately as much as possible, and that the players stay in the same stage as much as possible.
For example, in darts matches or bowling games, it is common that the players alternate their play as much as possible. Golf games employ a method of prioritizing players whose ball is farther away from the hole to let them play earlier.
In some games in which a plurality of players participate, when a player has to execute him/herself in the middle of the game for some reason, there may need to be some measures to prevent the other players from being disturbed to proceed with the game. For example, in a mah-jongg shop, a shop staff member is available as a substitute player when any player leaves in the middle of the game to take over his/her play.
In addition, a technique for managing such a situation in a network playable game is proposed in, for example, the literature identified below.    Non-Patent Literature 1: I/O 1998 December Issue (“Network Game Information Center, Play Online!—Let's discover a new recreation with a network playable simulation game”) Kohgaku-Sha Co., Ltd., Dec. 1, 1998, vol. 23, 12 issue, pp. 72-73)
[Non-Patent Literature 1] proposes a technique that introduces “turn” as a time unit for taking an action (corresponding to “stage” in the above description), requires players to make their game plays within a limited time period at each turn, and puts their issued commands into force all at once when all the players finish their play or when the time limit comes.
There are some games such as mah-jongg and card games, in which a plurality of players participate and that stop outright when one player leaves the game in the middle and aborts the play. On the other hand, in a bowling game, a darts match, a golf game, etc., it is, in principle, not impossible to carry out a game even if a player aborts the play in the middle, if the game is played in a way that each player continues the play at his/her own pace, and the player who has left catches up the play afterwards.
This is especially so in a case where the game score or who wins or loses is determined based on the results that have been produced when some collective number of stages have been finished by all the players, because it is enough if the player who has left in the middle can catch up before the score or the winner or the loser is finalized.
The substitution in a mah-jongg game and the technique disclosed in [Non-Patent Literature 1] are the measures for games of the former type.
On the other hand, in a game of the latter type, it is critical that the players move around in the same place or act in the same place at the same time if it is a real world game, while in a network game, a time lag of some degree may be allowed.
Hence, there is a strong demand for a technique for enabling an overall smooth flow of a game by taking an appropriate measure for a situation, which occurs when there are a plurality of participating players, that one of them has fallen behind the others in play and caused a time lag.
The present invention aims for solving the above problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a game system and a game control method that are suitable for making a play order of players to comply with a predetermined rule as much as possible but nevertheless allowing, with an appropriate measure, any player who has fallen behind in play to participate in the game, a computer-readable information recording medium that stores a program for realizing these on a computer, and the program.